MALACHI 3 (NOTES OF A READING)
MALACHI 3 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC I suppose whatever the state of the people of God may be, until He definitely casts them off, he is always seeking access to their hearts.
Ques Do we find that in Laodicea? “Behold, I stand at the door and am knocking”.
CAC Yes, I was thinking of that. Until the moment of final rejection we can count on the Lord’s service of love to all those who are professedly His people. The state in which they are may require the Lord to take on a special character as we see here, a character of cleansing and refining. He is not exactly doing that in John 13 - John 17. If He washed their feet, it was a tender service of love, and it did not contemplate that they were in a bad condition. But when everything is out of order, and particularly when the service of God is out of order — because that was the great calamity in this book — the Lord has to come in as the Refiner and Purifier. But it is still the service of love, as He says to Laodicea, “I rebuke and discipline as many as I love”.
[p. 577] Ques Had the first verse a kind of fulfilment when He was here in the days of His flesh? They were making the house of God a place of merchandise.
CAC Yes. I have often thought of the service when the Lord came to His temple; He saw plenty then in need of adjustment. It says He looked round upon all things. Well, He is doing that today. In the christian profession He sees almost everything to be in need of correction and purifying. I suppose that accounts for the character of a great deal of the Lord’s ministry when here, because of the exposure of things here. A great deal of it had that character.
Ques Why is the Angel of the covenant brought in here? What do we learn by that?
CAC Well, I suppose the Lord as the Mediator of the covenant might be spoken of as the Angel or Messenger.
Ques Does it suggest His mediatorial place and service?
CAC It rather, I think, suggests that he brought in the knowledge of God. All that God could make known of Himself was there in Jesus, but things being all wrong, the very declaration of God became a refining fire.
Ques Do you understand this to be a warning of judgment to come? It seems connected with judgment. J.N.D.’s footnote refers back to Exodus 32: 34. The Angel that was to lead them would visit their sin upon them. Would it be an opportunity afforded for the people of God to get right with God?
CAC Yes, the object directly in view is that the children of Levi may be purified to offer an oblation to Jehovah in righteousness. That is, if the Messenger of the covenant comes in, His first and chief thought would be that the service of God would be put right, and the refining would have that in view.
Rem Yes. There are two portions to it. He would do this in an arbitrary way and the result of His judgment would be the purifying of Levi. All would be removed that was not according to His mind, and the rest would remain. It seems a [p. 578] warning that it would come in punitively and so there is an opportunity to get right before.
CAC I suppose this service is very like what the Lord is rendering to the seven assemblies. The address to them seems to have a refining character. The Lord is calling attention to what will not do for God. Five of them are characterised by the presence of things He greatly disapproves of.
The overcomer would profit by the refinement, so that what was disapproved of would be cast overboard, and the service of God would go on in purity.
Rem He sent His Angel and the Jews refused Him, so a remnant is secured to carry on.
CAC “Refiner’s fire” and “fullers’ lye” — both are very drastic measures of purifying and cleansing, and the love of Christ makes Him jealous and this severe process is necessary.
Rem Chastening springs from divine love.
CAC And we see at Corinth the refining fire there, that is a very clear example in the New Testament. It says in chapter 11: 28, 32, “But let a man prove himself, and thus eat of the bread, and drink of the cup ... that we may not be condemned with the world”. That is the refiner, and the Lord looks that we should be in harmony with it. “Let a man prove”. You put yourself to the test to see if there is any dross to go, and the Lord looks that we take on a service in correspondence with His service. People are sick now and even die under the Lord’s refining process. “He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver”. That is a position that He takes up and retains until the refining process is carried out. He is in it this minute, He is deliberately considering His ways of refining love and the effect they are having on me.
The children of Levi are those specially separated for the service of God and so must be refined. The Lord is absolutely intolerant of what interferes with the service of God, He will not put up with it. The service is looked upon as carried out effectively. “He will purify the children of Levi, and purge them”. It is as if the Lord said, ‘I will see this matter through’. The object is that we should be prepared to handle holy things in a holy way. The most holy things have been put in our hands; it is a matter of offering an oblation. Oblation is a general term: it is extended to the peace-offering here and perhaps other offerings (it is really the meat-offering), so that it comes with ourselves, all is offered to God. It is Christ, of course.
Rem It sets out the highest form of service, the highest privilege of remnant days just before the Lord comes.
CAC Yes. We cannot bring what we do not have. It says, “They shall offer unto Jehovah an oblation in righteousness”. I think the point of it is that the offerer must be in keeping with the offering. We have nothing to offer but Christ, but God’s pleasure depends on what I am. If the person is altogether out of harmony with what he brings, God has not pleasure in it.
The refining process is most necessary, having in view bringing us into correspondence with Christ, and our business is to be in correspondence. John says, “Every one that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3: 3). That is just the normal action of purifying in the saints.
Rem In Exodus 19: 22, the priests hallow themselves. “And the priests also, who come near to Jehovah, shall hallow themselves”.
CAC Yes, so it supposes this priestly exercise goes on every time we eat the Lord’s supper; we put ourselves through a searching enquiry. It is the normal exercise of the saints.
Ques Is it eating unleavened bread?
CAC Yes; 1 Corinthians 5: 7 says, “Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, according as ye are unleavened. For also our passover, Christ, has been sacrificed”. In a certain sense the saints are viewed as unleavened, but then we must be practically so. No upright person would care to have it otherwise.
Rem It is a matter [p. 580] of righteousness.
CAC It is what is right, it is nothing arbitrary. If I bring Christ to God, I should correspond with Christ. If I speak to God of One meek and lowly in heart, and I am just the opposite, how could that be? We through self-judgment refine ourselves from those things that are not like Christ, so the saints are being refined all the time until our deathbed.
Rem The refiner watches until he sees his image in the molten metal.
CAC Until there is not a speck left to mar the image. That is what the Lord has in mind for us all, though the process is quicker with some than others.
Rem It has been said that discipline is according to our temperament — Paul’s and Peter’s were different.
CAC I think so.
Ques Does John 15 compare with this?
CAC “Every one bearing fruit, he purges it”. It is the fruitfulness of the vine that attracts the Father’s attention; it is not exactly a question of correction.
Rem The end in view is a very high standard.
CAC Well, it must be so if people are called in infinite love to be near to God. You would not like to think that God was not particular. Every saint must correspond with Christ.
I have no doubt that all the present difficulties and trials and pressure on the saints are the refining process, in order that the service of God should be carried on in a much more holy way than ever before. So He refers here to the “days of old”.
Rem Jehovah said, “I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness” (Jeremiah 2: 2).
CAC As when Aaron offered the burnt-offering and fire came out and burnt it up (Leviticus 10). It was such an offering that God could publicly acknowledge it. So with David at the threshing-floor of Ornan, fire came down upon the altar. There was something about David’s exercises which brought it down. There was something in David pleasing to God (1 Chronicles 21: 26). So with Manoah’s offering, the Angel did wondrously (Judges 13: 19). We should look for a sense that [p. 581] the blessed God has accepted with pleasure what we have brought. Cain’s offering was not! Has God accepted it with pleasure? We should not be content with anything else. I would not like God to be pleased with what I bring, if I am out of harmony with it.